The coaches in the Central Valley of California, where I grew up, taught me to take a mouthful of water to avoid becoming water-logged. I took this philosophy into young adulthood when I became a carpenter for several years.
One summer day on the job, I developed a serious weakness and a severe headache. I barely made it home. Thankfully, my mother knew what to do. Her father and husband were carpenters and had experienced what I later found out was a sunstroke. Mom made me lie down and remain still. Then she gave me two quarts of warm, salty water. This concoction tasted like lemonade, so I drank it and fell into a two-day-long stupor.
You would think I would have learned my lesson, but I didn’t. Years later, after raising our children in Seattle, where I floundered in rain most of the year, we moved to Surprise, Arizona. My wife was always after me to hydrate, which, after Seattle, was a foreign word. I fell into a pattern of carefully drinking water until I felt as if I might become water-logged.
One afternoon, I sat outside in the sun, having a great time. Suddenly, I began to shake from a nasty chill that caused my body to tremble violently. Soon, an ambulance was transporting me to our hospital, where I stayed for four days. Hard way to learn again to make sure I was hydrated.
Jesus stressed this point when He said that anyone who believes in Him will have their thirst satisfied and will thereafter become a source of living water for other thirsty souls.
As God’s children, we need to hydrate constantly by our relationship with Jesus. Otherwise, we will find ourselves in sin’s hospital.
Make sure you hydrate daily by drinking from the living water Jesus provides. Then share some with others.
The Rev. Dr. Bob Segress served as a licensed psychological clinician for twenty-five years. Upon retiring, he served for fifteen years as a prison minister. Retiring again, he began writing full-time after a period of boredom. He has written: The Biblical Approach To Psychology while serving as a college educator, The Shelton Series, and, in 2012, Ten Years Inside Shelton Prison. Currently, he writes for several publications such as Halo Magazine.